Rockin Android/Acceleration of Suguri X/Basics

Gameplay Basics

In AoSX, you will always automatically face your opponent directly, and shots fired will generally be pointed in the opponent's direction. Thus, the idea of the game is to shoot your opponent while avoiding or neutralizing enemy shots. There's other dynamics in the game too, such as building and using Hyper gauge, and managing your Heat gauge. In addition to that, there's a very wide variety of weapons with three primary attack types.

In order to become proficient at dueling you will need to learn some of the more important basics, such as:

Zoning with different types of attacks in an attempt to control and hit your opponent or force them to move where you want them.

Dash Cancel to execute another attack more quickly.

Attack Combinations to inflict further damage to your opponent.

Building Hyper from firing weapons, charging shots, and destroying ballistic.

Using Hyper to defend yourself with shields, cancel attacks into Hypers, and using Hypers to chain other attacks.

Managing Heat to keep your Heat gauge low and force your opponent's Heat gauge up.

Attacking

Attacking is what you must do in order to defeat your opponent. However, learning how attacks work is important. For the most part, projectiles that are fired will build some Hyper gauge. But keep in mind that the opponent can also convert your shots fired to Hyper gauge for themselves.

Firing Weapons

While there are only two weapon buttons, there are many different types of button inputs and combinations that create many different kinds of attacks. Not all characters have each button combination, so refer to the character-specific sections to learn more about what your character has and does not have.

WA: Tapped WA

[WA]: Held WA

SP+WA: SpecA, hold Special and tap WA

SP+[WA]: Held SpecA, hold Special and then hold WA

Dash+WA: Sliding WA, hold dash and then tap WA

WB: Tapped WB

[WB]: Held WB

SP+WB: Tapped SpecB, hold Special and tap WB

SP+[WB]: Held SpecB, hold Special and then hold WB

Hyper: Hyper A1, press Hyper.. Requires at least one stock of Hyper.

Dash+Hyper: Hyper A2, hold dash and press Hyper. Requires at least one stock of Hyper.

Spec+Hyper: Hyper B, hold Special and press Hyper. Requires at least one stock of Hyper.

WB+Hyper: Hyper C, hold WB and then press Hyper. Requires at least one stock of Hyper.

WA+WB+Hyper or WB+Spec+Hyper: Accel Hyper. This Hyper requires three stocks of Hyper gauge to fire and can be input in two different ways.

So, the most amount of normal weapons a character can have is 9, and the most amount of Hypers a character can have is 5. An example character with all 9 weapon types and all 5 Hyper types is Nanako.

Weapon Types

There are four basic types of attack in the game, and they are:

Laser

Beam

Ballistic

Melee

• Laser: Lasers generally trumps ballistic projectiles outright and will often beat melee. What this means is that lasers fired at enemy ballistic shots will destroy the ballistic projectiles and continue onward, building meter for the person who fired the lasers while persisting through. Lasers are also generally very quick and will interrupt an enemy out of an attempted melee-type attack, but not always. Lasers can not be destroyed by the enemy, only passed through by dashing. Once fired, the laser will not be interrupted or destroyed for any reason unless it contains some form of ballistic property. Lasers are the general purpose artillery in the game for most characters, they are good for forcing your opponent to dash, which raises their heat gauge, good for building meter for yourself, and their best use is to destroy oncoming enemy ballistic shots.

• Beam: Beams are powerful and large, but take some time to fire. Normally, they are too slow for a direct attack and can easily be dodged. Beams are mainly used after an attack as a combination to add damage or used to destroy a group of ballistics to build your hyper gauge. However, enemy lasers and beams can pass through and damage you. Beams are most effective in long range against enemies that usually fire ballistics in long distances.

• Ballistic: Ballistics will often beat melee and will hit a dashing opponent, but loses outright to lasers. Ballistic shots are the main strategic shots in the game, but they are a double edged sword. Most ballistic shots, when destroyed by enemy lasers, will reward the person firing the lasers with a large quantity of hyper gauge per projectile destroyed. Even so, they are completely necessary components to any battle, as they are necessary in order to prevent your opponent from endlessly dashing through your lasers. Most ballistic shots require a bit more aiming and timing and strategy in order to be used properly, but generally you want to put some ballistic on the screen in the path of the enemy.

• Melee: Melee can destroy enemy ballistic shots, though it generally will lose to both lasers and ballistic unless used with proper positioning and timing. For example, while Sora's Spec+WA sword cut will generally run right into the enemy's oncoming lasers and ballistic, Sora's Spec+WB can slash down enemy ballistic and persist through, also potentially hitting the enemy. Melee attacks are generally for close-quarters combat and useful in attack combinations.

Defending

While a good offense can also be a good defense, there are other means of defending oneself, such as avoidance or shielding.

Dashing

Dashing has several properties that should be known for intermediate play. They are:

• Grazing: Enemy lasers can be dashed through. this is sometimes referred to as "grazing".

• Laser Charging: When dashing, you leave a trail of rings behind you which are used to convert enemy lasers into Hyper meter. It is important to note that simply dashing through the laser is not what causes your meter to increase, but rather it is the ring itself that collects Hyper meter for your Hyper gauge. When a laser connects with the ring you will hear a faint charging sound and a text-display saying "CHARGE" will appear. This distinction is important because it is possible to intentionally dash away from large sprays if lasers rather than across or toward them, which will leave a ring directly in their path and catch all of them. Lasers that connect with a charge ring will only be neutralized, they will not be removed from the field, but they can no longer inflict damage or be converted again, either.

• Ballistic Charging: This works similar to charging lasers, but there's two major differences. First, even though enemy ballistic shots can not be dashed through, you can still leave charge ring in their flight path, and when an enemy ballistic shot connects with the dash ring it will cause a Charge similar to when charging a laser. However, the second major difference is that this will not neutralize the enemy ballistic shot and it can still inflict damage if it connects. Despite this, ballistic shots can not be charged multiple times -- they can, however, be charged and then destroyed by lasers for additional meter.

• Heat: When dashing you raise your heat in two different ways. Holding the dash button for a long graze will generally raise your heat gauge up gradually. Rapidly tapping the dash button to perform a quick series of dashes will very quickly raise your heat gauge. Heat effects the amount of damage you take by enemy weapons by a linear amount, so reaching 300% heat will cause quadruple damage to be incurred from enemy shots. To keep your heat to a minimum you will need to micro-manage your dashing a little bit by keeping and eye on your heat gauge and using normal movement or no movement to lower your heat.

• No-Shield-Trigger: While it is normally possible to cancel a dash by shielding, and cancel hit-stun by shielding, if you are hit out of a dash by enemy ballistic or enemy melee type attacks you will not be able to cancel into a shield. You can, however, still cancel out of laser-based shots including enemy laser-based Hypers (even if you can't normally dash through them). So, keep this in mind when dashing around excessively. Note that this trigger only occurs when dashing and at no other time.

Canceling Weapons

All normal weapons can be Hyper canceled, most normal weapons can be Dash canceled at some point (varies by attack and by character), and a few weapons can be chain canceled into other weapons. Some Hypers can also be chained into other Hypers. This is a very integral part of the game, especially learning how to dash cancel.

• Dash Canceling: Most attacks can be dash canceled as soon as the weapon is fired. More specifically, as soon as the attack becomes actively able to hit the opponent. For example, Firing Suguri's WA then quickly pressing a direction and tapping the Dash button will result in a quick-cancel of that move. You can then stop dashing and fire the move again, then repeat the process for some quick firing lasers. Generally;

Most laser-based attacks can be dash canceled immediately.

Most ballistic-based attacks have some delayed cancel timing and can only be dashed once all shots are active.

Most melee-based attacks tend to not have dash cancel points at all.

Some Hyper attacks, usually ones that are lasers, can have dash cancel points in them, though this is character specific and not all of them do.

• Weapon Chaining: Some attacks have very specific cancel rules that allow you to cancel one weapon into another. This is generally character specific and usually involves melee-type attacks in some way. An example of this is Suguri's chain that allows you to do the following: Spec+WA, Spec+WA, WA, WB.

• Hyper Canceling: All basic weapons can be canceled into a Hyper attack at any point of the move, even before it has begun firing. But that also means it can be done after the weapon has fired. An example would be to use Sora's Spec+WB -WA combo and then quickly cancel into a Hyper as soon as the laser is fired, normally this move would have a long recovery duration after fired, but the Hyper attack quickly cancels the recovery and both attacks continue to hit.

• Hyper Chaining: Some hypers allow you to chain one Hyper attack into another. This is usually limited to character specifics.

Shielding

Extremely important for intermediate and advanced play is the Shield button. Shielding has some major effects;

• Invulnerability: Temporary invincibility to all enemy attack types for the duration of the shield.
• Knockback': When in range of the shield, enemies will have their attacks canceled, but put into hitstun, and be forced away from you.
• Shield Canceling: Is simply the act of canceling hitstun into a shield. Newcomers often shy away from the shield button at first as they feel it is a "waste" of meter since Hyper attacks come equipped with their own shield durations. However, the most critical difference is that shielding can cancel hitstun. That means if you're currently being hit by an enemy attack you can press the shield button and activate a shield instantly to prevent further damage. This is incredibly important to master as it can truely mean the difference between a win or a loss.

However, there is an important feature to know about shield canceling;

• No-Shield-Trigger: This occurs only when dashing, and not performing any other action -- including attacks, basic movement, no movement, or anything else. When hit out of a dash by enemy ballistic or enemy melee, you will not be able to cancel hit-stun into a shield, which means Shield Canceling is not possible when you are hit out of a dash. Therefor, it is important to use dashing wisely to graze lasers; but extreme caution should be taken when using dashes to avoid enemy melee or charge enemy ballistic.

The Border

On the perimeter of the map appears two rings. This is the arena limit and you can not pass through the outer ring. While the inner ring is more there for aesthetics (generally to let you know you're close to the edge), the outer ring actually has more than one effect. As stated before, you can not pass this outer ring, but additionally, trying to pass through it will drain your Hyper gauge.

• Grinding: Dashing up against the outer ring will quickly begin to drain your hyper gauge and is a major reason to try and avoid being in close proximity to the "wall".

• Movement: The primary reason to avoid being near the wall, however, is to not have your movement limited by the wall itself. Movement plays quite a large part of dueling in AoSX, and having your movement restricted is a bad thing. Additionally, some ballistic attacks like Iru's will interact with the wall and detonate even if they do not touch the opponent, which can cause the explosion to inflict damage if you're within proximity of the blast radius. When you consider that the border is a circle, and you are inside it, being next to the wall restricts your movement to almost 90degrees, which can be further restricted by enemy ballistic and melee.

Of course, this can also be used aggressively, in your favor.

• Cornering: While the arena is a circle and therefor has no corners, it's still possible to apply pressure to an opponent and get them close to the wall. This is in your benefit to do so because once the opponent is near the wall, their movement is limited. While strafing parallel to the opponent is generally a good idea to avoid lasers and direct shots, it can lead to being hit by melee and ballistic when in close quarters. This is because to get away from melee, for example, it'd be faster to fly directly away from the melee attack rather than across from it. But if the opponent can not move backwards due to the wall, their only choices are diagonally to the sides or forward, which is where your melee and ballistic attacks have higher success rates. Meanwhile, if your opponent's back is to the wall and yours is not, your movement is not limited so your opponent is at a direct disadvantage.